Public Art

We usually call public art what stands in a public space and is not architecture. The multiplicity of interpretations that this broad definition can include ranges from the ephemeral to the large scale permanent sculptures. Nevertheless, those activities can well be considered extensions of an architectural order. The case of public sculpture in this regard is more evident, public sculpture is normally conforming a spatial mandate, dictated by and architectural surrounding, or a "natural landscape", the freedom that an artist will have to interpret the conditions given by the specific space, will be constrained by a very specific list of requirements, which will determine the materials he/she will use, the size of the work, and should ultimately as well define the kind of aesthetic and intellectual approach that he/she will choose to take in order to respond to the surroundings. This are not problems disconnected from architecture itself, the absence of a "functional" or "practical" aspect in the making of this kind of public art, is what for many defines the difference between both professions. Public Art of this kind though responds to a specific agenda, one which main objective is to satisfy an architectural necessity, therefore its processes and roles are of an architectural order and therefore it becomes architecture of a mostly an ornamental kind.